Re: [SAGE] Learning more about unix

[Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be>]

At 11:35 AM -0400 8/31/01, Roy M. Hooper wrote:

>  I've also poked around on Amazon, and found a number of possible books that
>  should or would cover this topic and other similar ones, but am not sure
>  which to go with, having a limited budget:
>
>  UNIX Internals: The New Frontiers
>  by Uresh Vahalia

	This one has been highly recommended to me as a general purpose 
introduction to the internals of Unix System V (of which HP-UX and 
Solaris are the two main surviving members).

	I have had a copy of this book for a while, but I haven't read it yet.

>  Solaris Internals: Core Kernel Architecture
>  by Jim Mauro, Richard McDougall (Paperback - October 2000)

	If you want to learn specifically about Solaris internals, you 
can't beat a book by Richard McDougall.

	I bought a copy of this book more recently, and it's higher on my 
list to read than the previous one.

>  Design of the Unix Operating System
>  by Marice J. Bach, Maurice Bach

	I believe that this is an older book, and perhaps less relevant today.

	I think I may have a copy of this book somewhere in my library, 
but if I do then I don't know where.

>  UNIX System Administration Handbook
>  by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, Trent R. Hein

	This doesn't get so deep into the internals, but does cover 
things like VM, the filesystem, the process model, etc... very well 
-- at least as they pertain to the job of a systems administrator.

	I've got multiple copies of this book, from the various different 
editions.  Indeed, for some editions, I have more than one copy 
because I wanted one at home and one at work.

>  The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating System (Unix and Open
>  Systems Series.)
>  by Marshall Kirk McKusick (Editor), Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels (Editor)

	If you want to learn about the internals of *BSD Unix, then there 
is no better book than this.

	I've got a copy of this book, and of all the "internals" books, 
this is the only one I've read so far.  I don't think I understood 
any of it (or if I did, I don't remember anything I learned), but I 
did read it.


	So, it largely depends on what flavour of *nix you want to learn 
more about.

	If you are a more junior Unix system administrator, then I would 
encourage you to start with the latest edition of the _UNIX System 
Administration Handbook_ (I think it's purple).  IMO, this should 
probably be one of the very first books you ever buy on the subject 
of Unix system administration.

	Once you've gotten "the handbook", you can make further decisions 
about which particular OS you want to learn more about, and then 
choose an "internals" book specific to that version.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles@skynet.be>

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